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Mandard

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Posts posted by Mandard

  1. Well...that was interesting. (seriously, don't read until you're done)

     

    So Jon goes down. Dammit, what the HELL. Martin is sadistic. Or maybe he's not dead...? I read it a bunch of times and it seemed pretty decisive, but I suppose you never know. If he is, then WTF happens on the Wall without him? Seems like it'll just be pure chaos with the wildlings, especially if Stannis is really gone, which I'm guessing isn't true since we didn't see it, but who the hell knows. Stannis never struck me as a character who would make it to the end anyway. But yeah, if that's it for Jon, what a depressing way for him to go. I actually think this was more shocking than Ned or the Red Wedding. Ned was already in a pretty dire place and it was pretty strongly telegraphed that something bad was about to go down at the Red Wedding. I suppose Martin had a few hints for this (like Ghost) and I think I could have handled Jon going down sometime later, like in the last book or something in a blaze of glory. But right at the moment, man, that was seriously out of nowhere. HARSH.

    (Edit: I wanted to come back to add that if Jon isn't actually dead, which appears to be the prevailing view among readers, it pretty severely lowers my already-rather-low opinion of this book. I expect better than cheap gimmicks.)

     

    (Second Edit: After further research, oh right...warging into Ghost. Duh. I feel stupid for not thinking of that, particularly after the mostly-useless prologue segment. Okay, so if he's warged in Ghost, I guess it's not that bad of a gimmick...but I'd still think it's kinda cheap. :p)

     

    But right, there were other things that happened here.

     

    Pretty disappointed with Daenerys. Again. My favorite storyline from the first book continues to struggle. One solid scene with taming Drogon is nice, but I feel everything else was filler. I really don't give a crap about Meereen and the amount of time devoted to the various political and military machinations is frustrating and boring. Her apparent change of heart at the end was welcome but I feel it's a couple books too late.

     

    For the first time, Tyrion's storyline wasn't a standout for me. Pretty boring actually. He had a distinct lack of other major characters to work off of, which was disappointing. Sullen Mormont doesn't get it done. And I'm not sure about Penny. I rolled my eyes at the idea of her being introduced as a love interest, but it doesn't seem to be going that direction. Or maybe it is. Whatever. Either way, not a particularly interesting character.

     

    Theon was...not too bad here. More interesting than Book 2, so I guess I'll count that as a win.

     

    Arya and Bran...I don't know, guys. I feel like they're completely wasted. They're effectively in completely different stories that happen to occur in the same universe. Dammit, start with the convergences, Martin!

     

    The new Aegon plotline was an interesting twist. Doesn't seem all that engaging as yet but hopefully that develops in the next ones.

     

    Still only a tease on zombie Catelyn. He's really holding that back. And as expected, Brienne is still alive and kicking.

     

    And just a few chapters before the end I had been thinking about what a shame we haven't seen Varys at all, then bam, there he is! Good ole Varys, stirring sh*t up.

     

    So yeah, there were some strong moments, but on the whole, I find this book to be lacking. Better than AFFC, but whatever magic Martin had going a decade ago feels lost. Way too many chapters left me with a "so what" feeling. Like AFFC, most of this book feels bogged down with minutiae that just isn't very interesting. I suppose some of it's necessary setup for later, but it gets tiresome. Too many minor characters, too many subplots, too much time when things just aren't HAPPENING. This was not the case in the first three books. Maybe this is all just a problem of "the gap" and these two books were just filling out the interlude before getting back into the meat of things. It did end with some stronger chapters, so I'm still hoping for better with the next installments. Hopefully he doesn't take too long.

  2. Wait, really? Does the general consensus actually think she's dead? I have a hard time believing that. I thought it seemed pretty clear that there was going to be a last-second reprieve. As frustrating as Book 4 was, I can't imagine that Martin made her a POV character and devoted all that time to her wandering around doing nothing only to get rid of her.

     

    Also, I'm pretty sure Ryn hasn't read the books and was just drunk posting. :D

  3. I started reading the series after watching the first TV episode. Just finished up Book 4.

     

    Book 1 was my favorite. Solid from beginning to end. Books 2 and 3 were a little shakier at times, particularly in the earlier sections, but both finished up very strongly in their second halves.

     

    Book 4 could not have been more disappointing. I was aware going in that this one was only "half" the story, but still, I can't find any excuse for all the dithering around in this one. I'm sitting here in my mind comparing the events of this one to the previous books and it feels like a joke. How can you write so much and have so little actually happen? I have to believe he just has too much going on, to the point he's struggling to put it all together and still keep it engaging for the reader. Major arcs from the previous books are all but abandoned. Arya only gets a couple chapters. Same with Sansa. And after cliffhanging with Cat in Book 3, she only makes one small appearance here. While Brienne, who I was happy to see included as a main since I love her character, gets tons of pagetime...and wastes pretty much all of it wandering around doing nothing significant. Cersei also gets a ton. Unfortunately, while I liked her as a crazy, evil bitch, I always believed she was a cunning and shrewd crazy-bitch. All we see here is that she's a complete idiot. Maybe other people enjoyed her, but I found her sections tiresome. It's sad that despite Jaime's chapters being far less interesting than the ones in Book 3, they were still the "highlight" of this book. And the Dorne and Ironmen segments are clearly just filler segments for plot points that at some point will be important, but currently don't warrant any characters major enough to focus on. I could not get through them fast enough.

     

    Here's hoping Book 5 is much better.

  4. When did she show up during the episode after the initial blood drive scene?

     

    During the party, a woman walks in and asks, "Is this the party?" Everyone looks down and mumbles. She walks out, disappointed. That was her. Michael's seat at the blood drive had faced away from her, so he had no idea what she looked like. He was still waiting for his dreamgirl to come in asking about her missing glove...assuming that glove was hers in the first place and hadn't been left by a previous donor.

    That didn't sound quite right, so I went back and watched it again. It was definitely NOT the same girl. Rewatching the scene, the "joke" appears to be that when she walks in, everybody looks hopeful that this might be Her, but then Michael shakes his head and says no, at which point everybody looks away and ignores her. And it's funny cause they're...rude? And depressed? Or something? I don't really know. Not exactly this show's finest hour.

  5. There's some new info on the next Superman and the other DC properties. Full article is here:

     

    http://www.latinoreview.com/news/superman-...e-rebooted-5262

     

    Most relevant bits:

    Like the recent Batman sequel -- which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far -- Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as "The Dark Knight." Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.' DC properties. "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it," he says. That goes for the company's Superman franchise as well.

    So in classic herd mentality, what worked for one specific character will now be copied and imitated for every property, without regard to whether the tone is actually appropriate to the material. What could possibly go wrong? :rolleyes:

    The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

    The implication being that Superman will be rebooted. Again.

  6. Toby is HR. So A) he's the one that usually has to reel Michael in and B) he reports to Corporate. So Michael is not actually Toby's boss and he resents the fact that he doesn't have the same power over Toby as all the others.

  7. I'm lurking in various corners of nightly right now because I have to stay up while I wait for the insanely long process to run that's supposed to fix the spoiler tags.

     

    Anyway, this thread led to that other thread, where Ericka called me "a fantastic bundle of awesome".

     

    Just thought people might like to know.

     

    EDIT: Why is this place called the Amphitheatre? It should be -theater, dammit. America, **** yeah and all.

     

    (Team America on Comedy Central, people. Uncensored.)

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